The invention relates to a process and system for monitoring motor vehicles of a motor vehicle fleet, which fleet is operated by a fleet operator.
For the management of a motor vehicle fleet by a fleet operator, it is indispensable that the vehicles of the fleet are serviced at regular intervals, so that there will be no breakdowns during operation when the vehicles are rented. Furthermore, it should be ensured that a servicing of the vehicles also takes place in such a manner that the body shell and the interior of the vehicle are in a condition that is as clean as possible in order to thereby achieve a high acceptance by renters and a frequent renting of the vehicles.
For the servicing of the motor vehicles of a vehicle fleet, it is currently necessary that the vehicles be seen at their locations at regular intervals by a service technician. The service technician checks the servicing requirement and subsequently carries out the servicing, if necessary. This process and system requires considerable manual effort.
It is therefore an object of the invention to develop a process and a system for monitoring vehicles of a motor vehicle fleet, by which the expenditures in connection with the servicing of the vehicles are reduced.
This and other objects are achieved by a process and system for monitoring motor vehicles of a motor vehicle fleet which is operated by a fleet operator, wherein, for a respective vehicle, of at least a part of the motor vehicle fleet, by way of a sensor system in the respective vehicle, vehicle-related data of the vehicle are determined. The vehicle-related data comprises at least its geographical position. By at least a portion of the vehicle-related data, a number of servicing parameters are determined, which describe the service requirement of the respective vehicle. By using a data network, by way of which the respective vehicle and a user interface assigned to the fleet operator communicate, the number of servicing parameters and the geographical position of the respective vehicle are output by way of the user interface.
Within the scope of the process according to the invention, vehicle-related data of the vehicle are determined for a respective vehicle of at least a part of the motor vehicle fleet by way of a sensor system in the respective vehicle, the vehicle-related data comprising at least the geographical position of the vehicle. The term “vehicle-related data” should be understood in a broad sense and, in addition to the geographical position, may also concern other vehicle-related data or condition data of the vehicle, in which case the embodiments of such condition data will be described further below. By means of at least a portion of the vehicle-related data, which, as required, does not have to include the geographical position of the vehicle, a number of servicing parameters are determined, which describe the service requirement of the respective vehicle. In this case, additional information, which does not originate from the vehicle, may possibly also be included in the determination of the servicing parameters.
According to the invention, by using a data network, by way of which the vehicle and a user interface assigned to the fleet operator communicate, the number of servicing parameters and the geographical position of the respective vehicle are output by way of the user interface. The process thereby permits an automated determination of corresponding vehicle-related data and of servicing parameters derived therefrom, which are provided to the vehicle operator by way of a data network. It is therefore no longer necessary that the servicing requirement of the individual vehicles is manually determined by service technicians. The vehicle-related data are preferably determined over a longer time period, particularly starting at the point-in-time of the last servicing, so that also the servicing parameters are determined, as required, based on vehicle-related data from a longer time period.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the data network, by way of which the vehicle and the user interface communicate, comprises the Internet, so that the corresponding vehicle information can be transmitted to user interfaces at arbitrary locations. In a preferred variant, the vehicle is linked to the data network by way of a wireless interface, preferably a mobile radio interface. As a result, the servicing parameters can be retrieved for almost any arbitrary location of the vehicle.
In a variant of the process according to the invention, the vehicle-related data are transmitted from the respective vehicle to a central computer which, by means of at least a portion of the vehicle-related data, determines at least partially the number of servicing parameters. This means that the computation of the corresponding servicing parameters does not take place in the vehicle itself but is taken over by a central computer, such as a backend server, which communicates with the vehicle via the Internet. As an alternative or in addition, it is also possible, however, that the respective vehicle determines from at least a portion of the vehicle-related data at least partially the number of servicing parameters and transmits them into the data network. In this case, it is not necessary that computations of servicing parameters are carried out by additional computers in the data network.
As mentioned above, for determining the number of servicing parameters, as required, also external information that does not originate in the vehicle, such as weather data, can be taken into account, as mentioned in detail below. Depending on the application case, the number of servicing parameters may also have a different setup. It is essential in this case that the servicing parameters contain information on the servicing requirement of the vehicle. In particular, the servicing parameters may indicate which servicing measures have to be carried out at the time and/or in a predetermined future time period.
The vehicle-related data, which are determined by a sensor system of the respective vehicle, include, in addition to the geographical vehicle position, preferably one or more of the following items:
(1) the condition of one or more operating devices in the vehicle, particularly the tank fill-up condition and/or the engine oil level, the cooling water level, the tire inflation pressure, the filling condition of the window washing system;
(2) the state of charge of the onboard battery of the vehicle;
(3) the mileage of the vehicle;
(4) the state of wear of one or more components in the vehicle, particularly the state of wear of the brakes;
(5) sensor data of a rain sensor of the vehicle;
(6) data concerning the activity of the window wiper of the vehicle;
(7) data concerning the condition of the air conditioner of the vehicle;
(8) data concerning the atmospheric pressure and/or the ambient temperature at the location of the vehicle;
(9) data concerning the sound propagation in the interior of the vehicle which originate from an antitheft warning system;
(10) image data of the vehicle body shell which are acquired by a camera system of the vehicle.
Depending on the application case, all these data can be used in a suitable manner for determining corresponding servicing parameters. For example, with respect to the condition of the operating devices, it can be output as a servicing parameter whether a requirement exists for filling up the operating devices or how high the amount of this requirement is. Additional examples will be described below as to how the just indicated items can be processed within the scope of the determination of servicing parameters.
In a preferred embodiment of the process according to the invention, the degree of soiling of the vehicle body shell is determined as one of the servicing parameters by means of at least a portion of the vehicle-related data of the respective vehicle, in which case, the geographic position of the vehicle preferably also has some influence on the determination of the degree of soiling.
In a preferred variant, one or more of the following items have some influence on the determination of the degree of soiling of the vehicle body shell:
(1) image data of the vehicle body shell, which image data are acquired by a camera system of the vehicle;
(2) sensor data of a rain sensor in the vehicle by which it can be determined whether the vehicle was heavily soiled by rain or snow;
(3) data concerning the activity of the window wiper system of the vehicle from which a conclusion can be drawn as to whether the vehicle was considerably exposed to rain or snow;
(4) data concerning the atmospheric pressure and/or the ambient temperature at the location of the vehicle, which also permit conclusions concerning the soiling of the vehicle.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, it is determined by way of the geographical position of the vehicle in which location category out of a plurality of location categories influencing the degree of soiling the vehicle is situated. In this case, the location categories can be classified such that they relate to whether the vehicle is parked under a roof or in a parking garage, whether it is on a street with heavy traffic or a street with less traffic, or whether it is parked in an identified parking area. These location categories undoubtedly have a large influence on whether or not the vehicle is more soiled. For example, a vehicle parked in a parking garage will be significantly less soiled than a vehicle that is parked on the side of a street or road with heavy traffic.
In a further aspect of the process according to the invention, weather data are taken into account as external information when determining the degree of soiling of the vehicle body shell, in which case, the weather at the geographical position of the vehicle is determined by means of the weather data. By linking the vehicle position with the weather data, it can very easily be determined to which local weather conditions the vehicle was exposed, from which an informative servicing parameter can in turn be derived concerning the exterior soiling of the vehicle.
In a further variant of the process according to the invention, by means of at least a part of the vehicle-related data of the respective vehicle, the degree of soiling of the interior of the vehicle is determined as one of the servicing parameters. In this case, preferably data concerning the sound propagation in the interior of the vehicle, which originate from an antitheft warning system, also have some influence. The antitheft warning system emits sound waves (for example, ultrasound waves) in order to determine the forced entry by persons into the interior of the vehicle. Here, the reflection behavior or the transit time of the sound waves is analyzed. This information can also be utilized for determining the soiling of the interior because, if the soiling is increased, the reflection of the sound waves or their transit time will also change.
The number of servicing parameters determined by means of the process according to the invention as well as the geographical position of the respective vehicle can be represented in different fashions by way of the user interface. These data are preferably displayed on a visual user interface, in which case the assignment of the number of servicing parameters of the respective vehicles to their geographical positions is preferably visualized based on a road map.
In a further development of the process according to the invention, the user interface is further developed such that the user can block or restrict respective vehicles from being further rented. It will thereby be prevented that a vehicle with a high servicing requirement will continue to be used by the user. It is further ensured that a service technician has access to the vehicle for carrying out the servicing and that this vehicle has not been otherwise rented in the meantime.
In addition to the above-described process, the invention also relates to a system for monitoring vehicles of a motor vehicle fleet which is operated by a fleet operator. This system comprises:
(a) a device for providing vehicle-related data of a respective vehicle of at least a part of the motor vehicle fleet, in which case the vehicle-related data comprise at least the geographical position of the vehicle and are determined by way of a sensor system in the respective vehicle;(b) a device for determining a number of servicing parameters, which describe the servicing requirement of the respective vehicle, by means of at least a portion of the vehicle-related data;(c) a user interface assigned to the fleet operator, which is further developed such that, by using a data network, by way of which the respective vehicle and the user interface communicate, the number of servicing parameters and the geographical position of the respective vehicle are output by way of the user interface.
In this respect, the system according to the invention is preferably further developed such that one or more preferred embodiments of the process according to the invention can be implemented by means of the system.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawing.